Indoor air quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants.
Machinery and OEM designers know that building safety into their equipment is a fundamental requirement. To ensure a consistent approach, the ISO 13849 standard provides guidance for machinery control systems that are applied to provide safety functions for machinery.
We sat down recently to talk to Dr. Douglas J. Casa, CEO of the University of Connecticut-based Korey Stringer Institute (KSI). The mission of the KSI is to provide research, education, advocacy and consultation to maximize performance, optimize safety and prevent sudden death for the athlete, warfighter and laborer.
In the United States, the number of acres burned each year from wildland fires has grown, increasing work-related risks to wildland firefighters. One invisible risk is carbon monoxide (CO), produced from the burning of fuels, such as in fires or from gasoline-powered engines. In a recent study led by Scott Henn, NIOSH industrial hygienist, he describes conditions that increase this risk.
The airports across the United States have been using aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), the premier firefighting foam in the United States for several decades. AFFF contains per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are a large family of man-made fluorinated chemicals with thermal stability that enhances its ability to rapidly extinguish hazardous fires.
The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) and six of its Allied Industry Partners entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the Indoor Air Quality Association’s (IAQA) Annual Meeting & Exposition in West Palm Beach, Florida. Frank Mortl III, CAE, ACGIH®’s Executive Director signed the agreement on behalf of ACGIH®.
Hazardous materials incident response planning and pipeline safety recently were enhanced as two more safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) 2019 – 2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvementswere implemented.
The growing problem of plastic pollution in the environment is receiving an increasing amount of attention (see article in Nature). Small particles of plastics are often referred to as microplastics (plastic particles smaller than 5 mm [1]) and nanoplastics (the nanoscale fraction of plastic particles). Nano- and microplastic particles (NMPPs) can be formed through environmental and mechanical degradation (the top-down mechanism).
Several landlocked states among those with highest rates
February 19, 2020
A new study finds a wide state-by-state variation in rates of melanoma caused by ultraviolet (UV) exposure with highest rates in several states on the East and West Coast including Hawaii, but also a few landlocked states, including Utah, Vermont, and Minnesota. The report finds state-level incidence rates for UV-attributable melanoma ranged from 15 cases per 100,000 in Alaska to 65 cases per 100,000 in Hawaii.
On an unseasonably warm autumn night in 2016 near Tekamah, Nebraska, a resident ventured out of his home to find the source of the sharp, overpowering odor he was smelling. What he didn’t know was that an 8-inch-diameter underground transmission pipeline owned and operated by Magellan Midstream Partners, LP had ruptured and released 2,587 barrels (108,654 gallons) of liquid anhydrous ammonia onto his property.